The Lord’s Supper is a fellowship meal, a communion, and sharing with Jesus of His meal which He Himself instituted for Christians to eat and drink. This means it is His meal to be celebrated as He would want in remembrance of Him. It is not to be treated as our meal and celebrated as we would want.
What does Jesus expect of us in this meal?
Jesus explained when He established this meal, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19 ESV). A meal in remembrance of Jesus would include remembering what He did and what He said. It would not be remembering Him to proclaim a teaching that contradicts what He said and taught. It would not be remembering Him to lift up our own ideas as if they are as important as His teaching.
Remembering Jesus means confessing and proclaiming His teaching from His death to His resurrection, from His rescue of us out of judgment to His deliverance so that we could live apart from sin and evil, and all that is associated with this. In other words, remembering Jesus is teaching rightly what He has said. If we are contradicting Jesus or teaching differently than Him, we are not remembering Him—we are contradicting Him. That is not fellowship or communion with the Lord. (John 15-16; Luke 24:6, 8; 1 John 1)
He also gave His body and blood under bread and wine “for many for the forgiveness of sins” which He poured out by His blood shed on the cross (Matthew 26:28 ESV). This means you should believe this and receive it in repentance seeking to live a life in the freedom from sin that He is giving.
Why is it important to approach the Lord’s Supper in this way?
To approach the Lord’s Supper in any other way is to ignore His purpose in giving it. God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7). Paul rightly pointed out that eating the Lord’s Supper is a participation or fellowship with the body and blood of Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:16–17). You are encountering the Holy God! You cannot do that and expect to live without His granting you forgiveness (Isaiah 6). “Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:29 ESV).
What does this mean?
This means you should “examine” yourself so that you do not approach the Lord’s Supper in an “unworthy manner” (1 Corinthians 11:27, 28). Such examination calls for you to test whether you believe the Lord’s Word—do you believe what He says or do you disagree with His Word (2 Corinthians 13:5)?
This also calls for us to examine the teaching where we commune, because it is not just a meal with Jesus. It is also a meal shared with the household of God in which you commune. This means that a proper celebration of this meal will involve unity both with God and with one another because Jesus calls for Christians to be united as His people and prays that this unity would persist (John 17:11-14; 20-23; 1 Corinthians 10:14-22; 11:29; Matthew 5:21–26). Additionally, He strongly teaches against false teaching, calling for us to be discerning (2 John 10–11; Romans 16:17; Matthew 7:13–20; 1 John 4:1–6).
This means that we should not commune with those whose teaching on Jesus differs from Scripture nor should we commune with those with whom we confess differently. Otherwise, we would be coming before Jesus lying about our unity with one another or saying that unity in Him (that is, in His teaching) is not important. Both of those are wrong and sinful, which would make communing but not wanting forgiveness for such division also against His institution of the Supper.
Rightly taking Jesus’ supper is to seek His forgiveness for our sins according to His Word, to recognize His teaching and His Word above all other words, and to have unity in His teaching as it has been proclaimed and announced in that household. Anything less is short of fellowship both with Him and one another.
What then?
We should seek unity in His teaching just as He prayed and as He desires. This means taking the time to work out any differences before communing together. It means if differences arise at a later time that we would diligently seek to come to unity in His Word once again. It means continuing to examine ourselves regarding what we believe and what Jesus teaches. It means taking seriously our remembrance of Him so that our confession and proclamation of Him would be in agreement with Him and one another (1 Corinthians 11:26). And it means forgiving one another just as Christ has forgiven you (Matthew 18:15-35).
Interested in communing with us?
If you are new to Christianity, we invite you to learn more about Jesus and His Word by attending our informational classes that covers basic Christian teaching. These classes help serve to ground you in God’s Word and bring you into unity with His Church through unity with Him in His Word.
For those who have been Christians for a few years, we invite you to explore unity with us through fraternal conversations with our pastor, whose contact information is found here. Everyone comes from a different background and we truly desire to have the unity that Christ gives us in His Word with you. Let us work through any divisions so that they will not be an obstacle to living unified in Christ and His teaching so that we can appear before His altar in true sincerity of heart confessing our unity in Him.